And what game ARE they playing?

That explains it

A review of the agenda for the Virginia Association of Counties annual meeting being held at The Homestead in Bath County Sunday through Tuesday gave us an explanation. An explanation, that is, of why Supervisor Teresa Altemus went to the conference even though she was trounced at the polls on Tuesday and will leave office as supervisor to the York District on Dec. 31. The keynote speakers for the opening general session Monday morning from 8:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. include two Virginia Congressmen, Gerry E. Connolly, D-11th, and Bob Goodlatte, R-6th. The other speaker is Altemus, who's listed as both a Gloucester supervisor and the National Association of Counties president-elect.

We're not sure if this counts as irony, but one of the Monday morning sessions at the conference is called "Ethics-Conflicts-Disclosure: The High Responsibility of Holding Office." Here's what the agenda says about the session: "This session will focus on the requirements of the Virginia State and Local Government Conflict of Interest Act including ethical considerations and proper disclosure procedures." The moderator is Daniel M. Siegel. If that name rings a bell, it might be because he was one of two lawyers to whom the county paid $9,025 to give legal advice to the Board of Supervisors after Commonwealth's Attorney Robert D. Hicks launched his Freedom of Information Act investigation back in January 2008. Siegel works for the law firm of Sands, Anderson, Marks & Miller. Which should also sound familiar because that firm is due $98,612.20 from Gloucester County following the early Thursday morning vote by supervisors Altemus, Michelle Ressler, Bobby Crewe and Gregory Woodard to pay their outstanding legal bills. Siegel's firm represented Crewe and Woodard in the criminal and petition cases.

Well if anybody ought to know about ethics by now, it should be those 4. They've had to actually vote on the Code of Ethics for BOS. I'd give them a checkmark in reading assignments! You know how kids are though, reading and comprehension are two different things.

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About the Author

I’ve been a newspaper reporter since 1991. I’ve been with the Daily Press since 2004 and live in Gloucester with my family. I’m a native Oregonian and worked for several newspapers in Oregon before moving to Virginia.